Five Important Milestones in the Life of Rei Hino
by FlyingFox87
Summary: Five of the most important moments in Rei's life. ReiMinako oneshot.


Title: Five Important Milestones in the Life of Rei Hino  
Paring: Rei/Minako  
Spoilers: A lot, especially for the Stars and Beryl arcs.  
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is not mine, will never be mine. yawn  
Feedback: Would be love

**Five Important Milestones in the Life of Rei Hino**

_Being Born_

Rei can't remember being born of course, but her birth certificate tells her she was born Rei Hino, on April 17th 1986 in Japan, more specifically Tokyo, the daughter of Senator Takato Hino and his wife Yumi.

She probably weighed in at around six pounds, maybe less as she was born slightly prematurely. She was probably red in the face and looked slightly flattened, not to mention squalling her lungs out.

Really, though, those are surface things. Rei likes best the details of her birth that her granddad gives when he starts to reminisce, about how her mother held her close to her, laying soft kisses all over her face as tears of happiness flew down her own, or how her grandmother, who was still alive at the time could not stop grinning until it looked like her head would split near in half.

He leaves her father out of his telling, but Rei can put him in easily, how he would rush in wearing his business suit still, hours after she's been born, when everything was done and dusted. Then he would take over and pretend he'd been there for the whole thing, strutting like some overgrown peacock.

Mostly though, Rei ignores his part in it. Instead she imagines being cradled in her mother's arms, as her grandfather and grandmother sat in chair in the background, softly bickering about what name she should be given. The image lingers and Rei knows…she was loved.

_Dying_

Rei remembers dying. Strange, that's a sentence that no one should be able to say, because well, once you're dead…you're kind of gone, you know? Finished, nada, zip, done for…

Yet, Rei can remember dying. Three times.

Every time she has died; Rei has done so to save Usagi, to save the world. It sounds heroic, but at the end of the day, it is what she was born to do, to protect the princess till the very end. Just like the rest of the sailor senshi.

She remembers knowing what was about to happen, knowing that she would not survive the attacks that would kill her. Jumping into the fray, sometimes literally, a split second where the attack is hurtling towards her, images of friends and family flashing through her mind, blinding pain and agony as she was struck and then nothing, no meeting with long lost relatives in the Garden of Eden, no visits to the pearly white gates, just…death.

_Living_

Most people cannot tell you the very moment that they realised that they were alive, simply knowing that they were somewhere at the back of their subconscious. For Rei however, the knowledge that she is_ alive_ has come three times. Each time it has come has been the day after she has died.

The first two times, she shot up in bed in the morning, gasping for breath. Eyes, wild, panicked, travel her room and as she felt her heart beat wildly in her chest, shed tears of joy. The third time, the panic was more intense, for Rei knew that that time, she had lost a part of her very soul. Closing her eyes, she had concentrated and deep within herself, sensed her star seed glowing, had felt the warm burning glow that Rei connected with Sailor Mars and her tears had flowed once more.

From time to time, when the shrine is quiet, Rei remembers. She presses a hand right above her heart, hearing it beat in the near silence of her surroundings and takes long, deep breaths in and out, simply listening to their rhythm and the very music of life which they represent. It is at this moment that Rei again realises that she is alive.

It is afterwards, when she argues with Usagi, or laughs with her friends when they all gather at the Crown for sundaes, that Rei realises that she is _living_.

_Falling in Love_

As a child, Rei remembers being tucked into bed at night, a woman with long black hair much like her own bending over her, kissing her cheek gently before switching off the lights. On rare occasions when he wasn't at the office, she remembers her father sitting on the edge of the bed reading her a story book, generally about some princess and her handsome knight. When the story ended, Rei would generally be almost asleep, but just awake enough to hear her father tell her he loved her before creeping out of the room.

Then, her mother died and her father abandoned her. Then and there, Rei had decided that everlasting, unconditional love was a load of crock, much like the stories her father read her. For many years, she isolated herself from the world, erecting a fortress of ice so thick that none would ever be able to enter…apart from one person.

Strange, that even though fire is _Rei's _element, this person was so easily able to melt the walls that surrounded her. Stranger still, that this person was not the one that she suspected it would be.

So busy was Rei arguing and squabbling with Usagi, making sure the odangoed blonde never broke through her defences and saw who she really was, that she totally failed to notice an attack on them coming from another direction. 

When she finds herself wanting to phone Minako about her day or simply to hear her voice, Rei understands what has happened. When the other girl talks about her latest date and a pang of jealousy shoots up Rei's spine, the raven haired girl realises the mistake she has made.

Yet, every time the blonde slings a hand around her shoulders as they walk into the shrine, her golden hair shining in the sun, pale pink lips parting as they chatter excitedly about her day, utterly oblivious to how Rei feels, she finds herself making it over and over again.

…_And being loved in return_

When school ends, the senshi are going off in mostly different directions. Ami is going to America, a university there having offered her a full scholarship. Usagi too has gone to America, to stay with Mamoru until he finishes his degree. Makoto is going to the TSUJI Culinary Institute in Osaka. Minako and Rei both end up at Juuban University, the irony not lost on her that she, who has never been to school with any of the others in all the time she's known them, is now at the same university as Minako while the rest are going their separate ways.

Rei knows that they will all keep in touch and of course will all be together again when Crystal Tokyo is formed but in the meantime, she can't help feeling sorrowful that the first friends she has made for years are going so far away. Still, Minako is staying and Rei is thankful for that, not sure quite how she would cope if the girl who she has grown so close to and secretly fallen in love with after Galaxia's defeat left too.

The first year of university only brings them closer. Minako doesn't want to live at home with her parents, but they won't allow her to live at the dorms. Rei allows Minako to move into the shrine. Soon it becomes no big deal for one of them to kiss the other on the cheek before they leave for their separate lectures and tutorials, Rei's in business, Minako's in music.

One day, Minako turns her head by accident and Rei ends up kissing her on the lips. Breaking apart they both begin to laugh. For a few days an awkward tension hangs around in the air but eventually, things go back to normal…or at least, almost normal.

Rei soon notices that Minako begins to go out with less people but that at the same time she has started to distance herself slightly from Rei. She looks on, concerned, as the blonde isolates herself, but what can she say?

"_Why won't you talk to me properly anymore? Is it about that kiss?"_

_  
_Yeah, that would go down about as well as a lead balloon. So for a few months, she watches, more and more concerned, before eventually she does blurt out the question point blank.

Minako tries to turn away, as Rei always expected her to, but the raven haired girl does not allow her it, instead making Minako look into her eyes. What she sees stuns her, for behind the copious amounts of confusion and panic, Rei can see desire and…love.

Minako must have seen the same emotion in her own eyes, for they both lean in at the same moment. Their heads bang together sharply and they break apart, only to laugh before coming back together.

This time, their lips meet and Rei is startled at the tingling feeling of warmth that spreads through her body. A few minutes later she pulls away.

"I love you Minako."

Minako's eyes light up, before she pulls Rei into another hug, burying her face in Rei's shoulder. Rei's eyes close gently, she's known for a long time that she's in love with Minako…

"I love you too Rei"

And now she knows Minako loves her in return. A quote she learned from her professor comes to the forefront of her mind.

"The most important milestones in life are the ones we never expected to happen."

As she kisses Minako again, Rei finds herself agreeing completely.


End file.
